What Is a Cloud?

河南固始縣信合外國(guó)語(yǔ)小學(xué) 高長(zhǎng)宇 編譯

It is known that clouds are made of water, aswater vapouralways rises andgatherstogether.Sometimes they are made oftiny dropsfar apart andheld upby wind.Other times they are made of big drops held up for a while by very strongupwardwinds inside the cloud.In this kind of cloud, the drops become too heavy tostay up, so they fall to Earth as rain.Or, if it’s cold enough, they fall to Earth as snow.

眾所周知，云是由水組成的，因?yàn)樗魵饪偸巧仙⒕奂谝黄稹Ｓ袝r(shí)它們是由相距遙遠(yuǎn)的微小水滴組成，并被風(fēng)吹起。其他時(shí)候，它們是由巨大的水滴組成的，這些水滴被云層內(nèi)非常強(qiáng)的向上風(fēng)支撐了一段時(shí)間。在這種云層中，水滴變得太重而無(wú)法支撐下去，因此它們以下雨的方式降落到地面上。或者，如果天氣夠冷，它們會(huì)以降雪的方式落到地上。

Clouds areclassifiedbased onthreefactors, their shape, thealtitudeat which theyoccur, and whether they areproducing precipitation.Clouds come in threebasicshapes.Cumulus clouds,which areheapedandpuffy.Stratus clouds, which arelayered.Andcirrus clouds, which are wispy.

云是根據(jù)三個(gè)因素分類的：它們的形狀、出現(xiàn)位置的海拔以及它們是否產(chǎn)生降水。云有三種基本形狀：積云，堆積而蓬松；層云，它是分層的；還有卷云，它們是細(xì)小的。

Clouds also occur in three altitude ranges.Specifically,high clouds, occur above 6,000 metres.Middle cloudswhich occur between 2,000 and 6,000 metres.Low cloudswhich occur below 2,000 metres.

云也出現(xiàn)在三個(gè)高度范圍內(nèi)。具體而言，高云出現(xiàn)在6,000 米以上的空中，中云出現(xiàn)在2000 到6000 米之間的空中，低云出現(xiàn)在2,000 米以下的空中。

Many people do not think thatfogwas a cloud, but it is.It is a cloud that touches the ground.Can you think of another kind of cloud?

許多人不認(rèn)為霧是云，但它是云。它是一朵接觸地面的云。你能想到另一種云嗎？

Notes:

water vapour 水蒸氣

gatherv.聚集

tinyadj.細(xì)小的

dropn.水滴

hold up 支撐；托起

upwardadv. 向上

stay up 支撐

classifyv. 劃分；分類

base on 基于

factorn. 因素

altituden.海拔

occurv. 發(fā)生；出現(xiàn)

producev. 產(chǎn)生

precipitationn.降水

basicadj.基本的

cumulus clouds 積云

heapedadj.堆積的

puffyadj.蓬松的

stratus clouds 層云

layeredadj.分層的；有層次的

cirrus clouds 卷云

specificallyadv.具體而言

high clouds 高云

middle clouds 中云

low clouds 低云

fogn.霧